Editorial Andrew Hurst Commitment to the commitment*
Learning more about the Fastnet-winning Imoca 60 Charal… in the course of developing a remark- able yacht Jérémie Beyou’s team had to make an unprecedented decision. ‘In the event of a foil failure,’ asked designers VPLP, ‘do you want to remain at least reasonably competitive?’ The corollary was that if the answer was no, the boat
could be more extreme and more – completely – foil-dependent. ‘No’, Beyou responded almost immediately, ‘go for it.’ As a result of that call Charal is much narrower than some of
her new Imoca rivals and quite ‘tubular’ in section – the hull alone providing 15-20 per cent less righting moment than other designs. That in turn means Beyou also (for now) has the lightest Imoca by some margin, though other new boats may well yet match his dry ship weight of just 7.5 tonnes, a tonne lighter than previous Vendée Globe frontrunners. Interesting also that the much bigger new Imoca foils plus their robust systems weigh some 500kg more than their predecessors, some measure of the performance gain on tap. The rounder hull also has less drag at most angles of sailing but
when it falls off the foils it needs to be sailed like a multihull to get going again. Speed must be aggressively rebuilt – but not, as on a big tri, to recover apparent wind, but to generate righting moment, which in turn generates more speed and ultimately gets the boat out of the water again. What would Charlie Barr have made of all that (actually, I expect he would have learnt pretty quickly. Like sex, raw talent is in fact not a modern creation). In four years we have moved from a boat like Hugo Boss 6, a
little narrower than her rivals, faster than her rivals, but when Alex Thomson had a foil failure in the last Vendée he remained very competitive in ‘Archimedes mode’. Four years from foil-assisted yacht to foil-dependent yacht. Elsewhere we will shortly see the first two scow Class40s, we
Munich Olympics. By popular demand, from MNAs, sailors, industry representatives and regatta organisers spread right across the globe, Gerardo Seeliger has been persuaded to stand as the next president of World Sailing. So lobby your MNA, write an email, pick up the phone. Or just shout at someone. It would be good to win this one. Hola!
THE THANKS ARE OURS It is an honour that Australian Rob Cook permits us to publish his letter below, it was a greater honour to receive it. Even so we thought long and hard about sharing it. But Rob’s brief letter concludes with such an important point, one that needs to be made and then repeated over and over. We owe him that at least.
Andrew The pains are telling me that my time has come, but not before I say thanks for 30 years of breakfast reading with Seahorse. From the lightbulb moment when I understood how a secondary jammer on the main halyard could mean quicker and better reefing I was hooked. Congratulations to you and the team for the strong presentation and promotion of keelboat racing. And keep up the pressure to let the kids grow into sailing like
we did. I doubt that many of the Opti squad graduates will rise to become superyacht crews without time earned finding their way through the moorings and up the creek. So keep at it, we have to save sailing from the parents and the ‘old sailors who never were’. Thanks for making my life better and best wishes for a strong
will see four new mega-Moths, aka AC75s, start sailing/flying/crash- ing. We’ve already seen Mini 6.50s foiling successfully with several set to cross the Atlantic this autumn. The 2019 Fastnet Race was won with a new course record by a fully foiling 100ft trimaran (for whom the Fastnet is now an overnight sprint). Ploughing to skimming to flying across an ocean in 48 months.
2019 is one hell of a year for sailing. *Dennis Conner
BONUS Finn Olympian, Finn Class President of Honour, recent 49er and 29er class president, America’s Cup team manager, hardworking representative of the sport at the IOC, creator of the ISAF (now World Sailing) Emerging Nations Programme. Still an active Finn sailor more than 45 years after representing Spain at the 1972
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The flipside of foils so long that they let you cross the Irish Sea at 25-30kt during the Fastnet Race. As well as the pads, fenders and covers, a trailer hitch has somehow found itself a role as well
Seahorse. Rob Cook, ordinary sailor
CONFUSED? World Sailing are committed to addressing this issue
our boats for us – Chris Caswell
to reduce costs – World Sailing slaps a 1% tax on all Olympic sailing equipment
LOVIN’ IT Suck my b*lls – New Zealand Opti sailor Harrison Loretz breaks RRS 2! (A bright future awaits)
in the Fastnet – Patrice Carpentier We have good boats
and good crews – Patrice
(GIANT) TALENT DOES THAT Interviewer:What is it like working with some of the really big names of showbusiness? Jimmy Page (18): Disappointing
IT’S GONE WRONG As kids we’d have been incredibly humiliated if our parents had rigged
THERE YOU HAVE IT The French are once again doing very well
unpleasant – Scaramouche Fastnet skipper Azat Ulutas (18)
was fantastic – Ulutas
KEEPER To be honest, going up to the Rock was a bit
But coming back, doing 15kt in the dark when we couldn’t see where we were going… that
And there, I think, you have the difference between us and the rest of the world. Other nations, the French, looked at a dining table and saw an opportunity to have dinner; we looked at it and saw an opportunity to
called wiff-waff – UK Prime Minister Boris Johnston
play wiff-waff – (call me) Boris
Seahorse magazine and our associate raceboatsonly brokerage site are both at:
seahorsemagazine.com The editor is contactable by email at:
andrew@seahorse.co.uk
SEAHORSE 9
SMILE Ping-pong was invented on the dining tables of England in the 19th century, and it was
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